1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital signal recording apparatus for recording a digital signal such as an audio signal. More specifically, the present invention relates to a digital signal recording apparatus for performing a recording operation in a standard recording mode and a long-time recording mode in which information can be recorded on one and the same recording medium for a time longer than that of the standard recording mode.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, various recording and reproducing apparatuses have been remarkably developed in order to improve the quality of a video by using digital coding technologies. Under these circumstances, a digital video cassette recorder (VCR) is expected to be a next-generation VCR which is sure to replace a currently used analog VCR in the near future. In order to realize a home-use digital VCR, the information is required to be recorded in a smaller-sized cassette for a long time. Accordingly, it is indispensable to introduce high-efficiency coding technologies into such a digital VCR for reducing the amount of information of the digital video signal while preventing considerable degradation in the quality of the video. A standard format of the home-use digital VCR (DVCR) utilizing the high-efficiency coding technologies is published in the "Basic Specifications for Consumer-Use Digital VCR" by HD Digital VCR Conference in August 1993. This DVCR can record a currently used TV signal in compliance with a REC601 standard on a magnetic tape at a data rate of 25 Mbps.
Hereinafter, the operation of such a DVCR will be briefly described. When the currently used TV signal to be input is an analog signal, the analog signal is A/D converted and then filtered so that the sampling ratio among a luminance (Y) signal, a first color difference (R-Y) signal and a second color difference (B-Y) signal becomes 4:1:1 in the horizontal direction. Needless to say, when the input TV signal is a digital signal, there is no need for the A/D conversion. Thereafter, the order of the signals is changed and a predetermined video signal processing such as a compression processing is performed depending upon the necessity, thereby outputting a video data. In this case, an important data, such as a data indicating whether the input video is to be reproduced in an NTSC mode or in a PAL mode, which is indispensable for reproducing the video data will be called an "auxiliary data". The auxiliary data is inserted into the video data. Thereafter, an error correction coding is performed and the video data is modulated by a modulator so as to be converted into a recording signal suitable for a magnetic recording. Then, the signal is recorded on a magnetic tape. According to the basic specifications for consumer-use digital VCR, a NTSC TV signal is recorded by dividing one frame into ten tracks.
In a generally used DVCR, a track is composed of a predetermined number of sectors and gaps between adjacent sectors, and a sector is composed of a predetermined number of synch blocks, run-ups, guards and the like. Tracking information, an audio data, a video data, a sub-code data and the like are assigned in the respective sectors. An auxiliary data is assigned and inserted into the identical sector where the audio data and the video data are assigned.
It is generally considered to be indispensable for a recording apparatus for recording a video signal to edit various data on a field basis or on a frame basis. Therefore, not only a video data and an audio data but also a sub-code data and an auxiliary data can be edited as a whole on a field basis or on a frame basis. In order to realize such editing, a field address for identifying a field, a track address determined by regarding one field as a period, and a block address determined by regarding one track as a period are generally provided. Alternatively, a frame address for identifying a frame, a track address determined by regarding one frame as a period, and a block address determined by regarding one track as a period can also be provided.
As described in Japanese Patent Application No. 6-38248 entitled "Digital Signal Recording and Reproducing Method", the auxiliary data is periodically recorded at respectively different positions in the respective tracks in order to eliminate the influence of a burst error, a scratch and the like on a magnetic tape and to obtain the data easily during a trick play reproduction.
In a currently used VTR of a VHS system, a video data can be recorded in following two recording modes, i.e., a standard recording mode and a three-time-longer recording mode in which a video data can be recorded on one and the same tape for a time three times as long as the time in the standard recording mode. Therefore, in practically using a home-use DVCR, the video data is frequently required to be recorded in a long-time (e.g., three-time-longer) recording mode rather in the standard recording mode.
A DVCR allowing for recording a data in a long-time recording mode by a high-efficiency coding technique is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 5-183869 entitled "Digital Video Signal Recording Apparatus". In the technique disclosed in the patent publication, the ratio of the sampling numbers for the luminance signal in the standard recording mode with respect to the long-time recording mode is set to be 3:2. However, if the sampling frequency for the luminance signal in the standard recording mode is 13.5 MHz, for example, then the luminance signal in the long-time recording mode has a frequency band of 9 MHz. As a result, the resolution obtained in the long-time recording mode becomes inferior to that obtained by a conventional analog S-VHS. In addition, according to the standard REC601, the sampling ratio among the luminance signal, the first color difference signal and the second color difference signal is set to be 4:1:1 in recording the currently used TV signal in the standard recording mode by using a home-use DVCR. In this case, if the sampling frequency for the luminance signal in the long-time recording mode is set to be two-thirds of the sampling frequency for the luminance signal in the standard recording mode, then the sampling ratio becomes (8/3):1:1, so that it becomes very difficult to use a common circuit by way of a blocking or the like in both modes.
In addition, in the case where a block having the same addresses as those of a block for the standard recording mode is used in the long-time recording mode, then a correct frame cannot be designated by a frame address. Furthermore, if a signal for the standard recording mode and a signal for the long-time recording mode are tried to be continuously recorded on one and the same tape by inserting an auxiliary data into a frame by beginning with the position of the head track of the frame for both the signals, then the auxiliary data can not be inserted periodically. As a result, an error is likely to be caused in detecting the auxiliary data immediately after scanning the boundary between the recording region for a standard recording mode and the recording region for a long-time recording mode during the reproducing operation, and an algorithm for detecting the position of the auxiliary data becomes more complicated, so that the size of the circuit becomes disadvantageously increased and the delay in the detection time is increased.
It cannot be identified whether the reproduced data is recorded in the standard recording mode or in the long-time recording mode until the contents of the auxiliary data are examined. Therefore, in the case where detection errors are successively caused in a trick play reproduction, in particular, the reproduction processing is likely to be performed by mistaking a signal recorded in the long-time recording mode for a signal recorded in the standard recording mode, and a large defect is possibly generated in the video reproduced on a screen.
Recently, as well as the currently used standard TV signal, an HDTV signal and a signal for a 16:9 wide screen TV have been more and more practically used. Therefore, a home-use DVTR allowing for recording the plural kinds of TV signals in common will be required in the near future. It is possible to commonly perform the signal processing and use the same recording head between the format for recording the standard TV signal and the format for recording the HDTV signal after the variable-length coding has been performed. However, it is difficult to commonly use the other portions of the circuit, because the number of the blocks per segment of the currently used TV signal, i.e., 6 blocks.times.5=30, is different from the number of the blocks per segment of the HDTV signal, i.e., 8 blocks.times.5=40. If independent circuits are provided for the respective TV signals, then the cost of the apparatus is adversely increased, so that it becomes very difficult to use such an apparatus as a home-use apparatus.